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ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



wolves, and in the Bakony Wald wild-cats and wild boars 

 are caught every week in the year. Konok-Derescli, or 

 wolf-baiting, is a sport which has perhaps been imported 

 from the region where the ancestors of the Magyars 

 hunted the jackals of Imaus. They use a sort of lariat 

 of untwisted strands of hemp or horse-hair that sink 

 between the teeth of an animal trying to gnaw it. With 

 a rope of that sort the wolf is fastened to a picket-stake 

 by means of a ring that permits him to run round and 

 round without entangling his tether. On the Danube 

 curs are cheap, and if the wolf proves a good fighter he 

 may hope to live and fight another day, or even to ad- 

 vance to the rank of a household pet. If he turns tail, 

 his fate overtakes him at the end of his tether, and his 

 carcass is used to instruct young shepherd dogs in the 

 higher branches of their profession. Near Pesth, where 

 wolves are rare, the wild boars of the Bakony Wald act 

 the leading role in the game of Derescli. On account of 

 the peculiar formation of his neck, Lord Bacon cannot 

 be tethered, so they turn him loose in a corral with an 

 amphitheatre of hay-bales and reserved seats on the 

 wood-pile. An old boar is by far a more dangerous 

 customer than a wolf. A well-aimed cut of his knife- 

 like tusks will rip a dog from neck to stern ; but trained 

 hounds checkmate that game by the " catch and vault" 

 trick, — i.e., they grab the tusker's ear and jump over his 

 back, and thus keep his head in chancery till hunters or 

 comrades come to his assistance. Even in Hungary a 



